If I Always Do What I’ve Always Done

I was thinking about this phrase this morning as I prepared to move all of my draft posts forward for another month. The truth is that half (or more) of those ideas are no longer relevant to me or where I want to take this blog.

I prepared to move them as usual and then I thought, I am just going through the motions. I am just doing what I have always done.

What I end up with is a waste of time. Instead of dealing with all the drafts (which would mean deciding what to keep and what to delete) I just keep moving them forward.

It is really hard sometimes to stop what we are used to doing – and do almost automatically – and do a new thing. I really don’t want to keep doing the same thing over and over again. That is like running on a treadmill – you do lots of work, you get really tired, but you never make it to your destination (unless of course you are trying to lose weight).

There are things in my life that I walk around or just pick up and move out of the way to avoid dealing with. It seems so much easier just to keep doing what I have always done, than to actually do something different. I think I get so used to the scenery of something that it blends into the background and I really have to work hard to realize that it is there. And I have to work even harder to make changes to it.

I think it seems easier to keep doing what I have always done. I get up in the morning, I have my coffee, which blends into breakfast, and the rest of the day is a blur. I have “THE” routine and I rarely deviate from it. What about changing the routine? What about doing something different? What about trying a new thing?

Think carefully about this phrase:

If I always do what I have always done, I will always get what I have always got.

I can think of several things in my life that fall into this category. I have always done this, so let’s just keep on doing this, not really considering whether it is working for me or is actually productive.

I am reminded of the story of the lady who used to cut the ends off her roast before she put them in the pan. One day her child asked her why she cut off the ends of her roast. She told her child that she had seen her mother do it. Then the child asked her grandmother why she cut the ends off her roasts. The grandmother told the grandchild that she had seen her mother do it. So, the child asks the great-grandmother why she cut the ends off her roasts. The great-grandmother explained that she cut the ends off her roasts so they would fit in the pan. All those years, and all that wasted roast, because people just did what they’ve always done.

I want to live this year more purposefully. I want to think about ALL the things that I am doing and make fresh decisions with a new set of eyes and not just do them because I have always done them.

Think carefully about this phrase one last time with me:

If I always do what I have always done, I will always get what I have always got.